Suzie is a little while dog who came into a shelter in Ontario, Canada late last year. Her owner was an elderly man; no one really knows her story. But she was sick when she came in, and while the shelter gave her some veterinary attention, she just got sicker. She was slated to be euthanized a day or two before Christmas, when a volunteer -- who had been advocating for her to get more medical treatment all along -- decided she couldn't let that happen, and brought Suzie home.
The volunteer, whose name is Janice Belyea, reached out to a canine health email list she belonged to for some health advice. I am a co-moderator of that list, and both the list owner and I were touched by the story of a little dog who seemed to have nothing more than a stubborn bladder infection. We offered to pay for Suzie to see Jan's veterinarian, and for any tests and antibiotics she needed.
It turns out we were wrong, and Suzie had a very large bladder stone that was extremely painful, and needed surgery and treatment to the tune of around a thousand dollars. That was more than I could handle, and I went to a wonderful website that helps pet owners raise money for their pets' health problems, imom.org.
They suggested we start a fundraiser for Suzie, and we did. I shared her story, and posted it to my email lists and my blog. I was planning on posting it here, too, but something amazing happened: Within 4 hours, we had more than a thousand dollars, and I shut the fundraiser down.
Suzie's story captured the notice of a lot of people. It appeared in hundreds of newspapers and magazines around the world -- including in China -- and even appears in this month's "Healthy Pet" magazine, which is handed out to the clients of every vet clinic and practice in the United States. I wrote about it in my pet column for the San Francisco Chronicle, in an article called "On the Internet, everyone helps your dog."
Well, now Suzie needs a little more help. Jan adopted her while she was recovering from her surgery, and has nursed her through a lot of ups and downs since then. For the last few months she's been healthy and happy, but about a week and a half ago she developed hemorrhagic gastroenteritis and was vomiting blood and leaking blood from her rectum.
Jan loves Suzie a lot, and her vet is a great guy who went the extra mile for them both -- he donated free hospitalization, and free services including ultrasounds and fluids, and a lot of TLC. But the bill still hit over $1700 by the time she came home today.
Jan and I between us have paid half that bill, and the vet has kindly offered to wait while we gave the fundraising a try once more, so we can pay off the balance.
You can read Suzie's complete story on my blog here, and the first part of it in the San Francisco Chronicle here. A few Canadian papers wrote about the story, too... here is one example. I include these just so you can see that we're the real thing -- and so, of course, is Suzie.
And now we get to the point: Can any dog-loving Kossaks help? I'm always amazed at the concern for animals I see here, so if any of you can contribute a few dollars, or even just help us spread the word to those who might be able to, we'd be very grateful.
Suzie's fundraising page is here:
Help us help Suzie again!
I'll be around all evening to answer any questions you have, or you can email me at christiekeith@gmail.com.
Thanks, everyone, for any help or just good thoughts you can send Suzie's way!
Copyright 2009 by Christie Keith. All rights reserved.